The architecture of present day mobile network includes a radio access network, a core network and user equipment connecting to the radio access network. The radio access network includes radio base stations or nodes for setting up the connection to the user equipment. Whilst the nodes of the radio access network mainly can be considered as stationary with fixed location, the user equipment is mobile and may take basically any position within the network. Planning, configuring, optimizing, and maintaining a radio access network, the mobile operator must be able to adjust network element settings and re-organize the network according to user equipment behavior.
Present solutions for determining network element settings involve manual planning to dimension and plan the network. Optimization of the network is performed using measurements and statistics. Wireless network operators today have considerable manual effort in network management, e.g., configuring the radio access network. These manual efforts are costly and consume a great part of operational expenditures (OPEX).
e-UTRAN (evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) is a future wireless access network standard optimized for packet data and providing higher data rates. An important E-UTRAN requirement from the operators' side is a significant reduction of the manual effort in network management for this future wireless access system. This involves automation of the tasks typically involved in operating a network; a demand for self-organizing network features. However, such self-organizing features for optimization of network element settings may also affect the overall performance of the network in an unexpected way.
It is a concern of operators that introduction of automated features in the radio access networks will result in an unstable behavior causing serious problems in the network operation. The operators are reluctant to accept Introduction of automated optimization features in a radio network, even though such automated features would be of great assistance in the network management. Thus, there is a conflict between the need for automatic execution of tasks involved in network management and the operator distrust for automatic network optimization. There is a need for a solution that addresses this conflict.